[Author’s note- this is the first of two interviews with Rusty Anderson. This interview, unpublished until now, focuses on his initial work with Paul McCartney and Anderson’s Undressing Underwater album. In part two our conversation turns to Anderson’s second record, 2009’s Born on Earth.]
If Music be the personal liberator to the world at large, then rock & roll is the dream of the eternally young at heart. It certainly was for the unique and brilliant Rusty Anderson.
As a session guitarist, Rusty Anderson would get calls to make the dreams of others come true. A blessing and a curse so tragically interwoven, life as a hired gun can bring good money, steady work, and even prestige; yet many studio cats yearn for opportunities to find deeper musical empathy in far more original directions. Years into a serious career of session work with the likes of Santana, Elton John, and Sinead O’Connor, Anderson caught the late 90’s zeitgeist via the spicy fretwork and impassioned flavor he gave Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” Yet he remained at the daily crossroads of maintaining a career in the studio world versus charting a new course. A legendary icon would aid in that decision.
Getting called to track guitar parts on Paul McCartney’s 2001 offering, Driving Rain, was one serious rock and roll dream come true for Anderson. A life-long Beatles fanatic, Anderson often fancied as a child that the Beatles would come to his door and ask him to play with them. Surreal or not, this was his chance to satisfy both sides of his musical dichotomy. He finally had all the benefits of session stardom, while digging deep into the artistic trenches with a man who defined the very idea of originality in pop music. His Kansas was about to go Technicolor.
Perhaps it is only now though, after four years at Sir Paul’s right hand, that Rusty Anderson’s greatest vision may finally have come to life. A case study in the last 40 years of pop music, Undressing Underwater gives ample proof that Macca made the right choice. Anderson’s debut record is a soundgarden full of the fruits born from hard labor and good fortune, and it serves notice that melodic rock and roll is far from dead. Thankfully, it seems there will always be a contingent that never gives up on the dream.
The album opens with the massive hook of ‘Hurt Myself,’ a loving recall of both the 60’s and the 90’s. And with a flugelhorn solo two minutes in and McCartney himself manning the bass line, that’s pleasantly unaverted. But ‘Devil’s Spaceship’ follows with a melodic summation of hard rock history. Picture Robert Fripp conducting a lucid Scott Weiland and a freewheeling STP as they cover The White Album. Even though influential traces of past rock greatness are strewn across its ten very strong tracks, it most surprisingly feels like the work of a burgeoning artist- one with a deft ear for production and a curious sense of adventure. Whether it’s the backwards guitar of ‘Coming Down To Earth,’ the psychedelic twang and lush harmonies of ‘Damaged Goods’ or the massive grooves of ‘Ishmael’ and ‘Everyone Deserves An A In This Country,’ “Underwater” is full of soundscapes that blend tastefully into a déjà vu-doo soup.
The lyrics bear this fruit as well. Esoteric then visceral, Rusty’s words find sympathy with the melodies and harmonies, speaking from the album’s true inspiration. Often the hardest trait to nail down, the defining spirit of an artist and his art shine brightly here, and frankly, today’s rock and roll needs a lot more of such spirit.
When I tracked Anderson down, he was in the middle of a sold-out tour, barnstorming across America with Sir Paul McCartney. And though Underwater was his primary focus, his experience and brilliance on many subjects poured forth graciously. And today’s rock and roll needs a lot more of that, too.
BF: Like most great pop music, Undressing Underwater has a veneer of simplicity, with complex orchestration and production underneath. How does complexity become accessible to the listener in your experience?
RA: What I’ve gravitated towards over the years are hooks and melodies that work on their own and in the context of the music. If you have an arrangement for a whole band, they would work linearly through the horizontal and vertical at the same time. And a lot of people don’t think that way. And sometimes “rubs” are really cool, where you have dissonance within the music and it works. Sometimes they’re just rubs that don’t really need to be there.
BF: Like avoiding the avant garde done for its own sake.
RA. Yeah. But I’m into avant garde music too. I go back and forth between thinking that the most important thing is for something to be new and unique versus if it’s just good and it resonates and speaks to me. I suppose it’s like the devil and the angel. I think they’re both really important.
BF: So how would you then describe yourself as an artist?
RA: Basically, that’s why I put a record out. I think it speaks for itself. It’s definitely a melody and lyric-based record. I’m a singer-songwriter-guitar player with an emphasis on guitar. It’s what my chops are developed on. I think the guitar is the best instrument in the world, and I can’t help it. It’s such an expressive, beautiful instrument. It can be angry, innocent, melodic, and be flowing and yet so aggressive and obliterating and punky and soft. It has so much to say.
BF: The lyrics on Undressing Underwater speak of suffering losses and facing personal demons. Do you find it hard to express things of that nature minus the clichés?
RA: Yeah! (laughs) I think that’s definitely true, because as recorded music keeps progressing, there becomes more things that will be plagiaristic to do. And the more you listen, the more you have to worry about that. Having said that, there’s always new stuff out there that hasn’t been done, and that’s what interests me the most.
BF: Listening to the record, one guy that came to mind when I considered both your career and your music was Mick Ronson. Both of you are multi-talented, and in a certain way, he set aside some of those pursuits to work with a icon in David Bowie. Do you feel his influence, and do you feel like you’ve given up some of your dreams and pursuits to make another artist’s vision come to life as he did?
RA: First of all, Mick Ronson is one of my all-time favorites. He’s a huge influence and there’s a guy who had a sound. I was really bummed out that I didn’t get to meet him. He sat in with a friend of mine who replaced me for a gig when I was 18. It was with a singer named Marty Blakely. So I get a phone call at my parents’ house when I’m not there from Mick Ronson. And I freaked out, but I never did get to talk to him. And that was the closest I ever got to him. He arranged the strings on Life on Mars, his guitar playing is amazing, and he was brilliant.
But when you talk about giving up stuff, I don’t know if that’s true. I can’t speak for Mick, but on my behalf, playing with Paul has been nothing but good. Paul’s a very generous, warm-hearted man. Watching the way he holds his whole entourage together has been quite the learning experience, and I think a lot of it I learned without realizing I was learning it.
BF: Considering Paul turned down a lot of recording requests in the past few years, from the likes of Ozzy Osbourne and Gov’t Mule, what was it like to have Paul record on your debut album?
RA: Well, that was pretty insane! Very surreal. It was very endearing to show him the song, and see him learning it with everyone else. And he’s such a musical cat. He played bass and guitar, and sang on it. There was one section he called it the “Rescue Bit.” He said “I love rescue bits, ‘cause you don’t know what’s going to go in them.” And he called the next day and said he had a great time recording and he had an idea for the rescue bit. He thought something should come in, something different and unexpected. So I called up Probyn Gregory who plays with Brian Wilson and ended up putting flugelhorn on it. And I thought it was a nice addition to the song.
BF: It’s quite the honor to play Paul McCartney’s songs with Paul McCartney himself. But how do you approach asserting your own voice when necessary?
RA: Well, it’s different every night. The one thing about “Let It Be” in particular, is that of all the Beatles’ guitar bits, the mode and the tone of that solo were more important than the actual notes. It’s more of a color than a solo you go around singing all day. So in that respect, that’s what needs to happen.
Also, I think that personality is really important. It’s important for any musician to have a place to come from at all times, or what else are you doing it for? Any time I’m playing any guitar, I just play what comes out. I don’t always consider whether it sounds exactly like the original or nothing like the original. The nature of playing with Paul is I’m playing music that’s almost biblical. So, you don’t want to rewrite the Bible, but it’s karaoke to not express yourself. So you wiggle around a bit and you find a way to put your English on it.
BF: After four years with Paul, what songs or experiences stay with you the most?
RA: Well, I’d pick a few songs. “Maybe I’m Amazed”, “Too Many People” and “Let It Be” are all great ones. My first real gig with him was the Concert for New York. It was trial by fire, because we went out there with the Who, David Bowie, the Stones, Elton John, and we were going on last. Backstage I had met President Clinton and all these people. So I go out there and all the house and stage lights were on and I could see everybody. It was just “Show ‘em what you got, man.” And after I did that, I thought I could do anything.
We were going to do “Let It Be” and Eric Clapton was going to play the solo. If I’m going to be blown off by someone, it might as well be Eric. So I turn around right before the solo and there’s no Eric. So I start the solo and Eric Clapton shows up, but the camera’s on me playing it, and half way through the camera switches to Eric and he takes the second half. It worked out really nice, but it was a completely chaotic train wreck. But you’d never know it from seeing it on TV.
BF: What have you learned about the genius of John Lennon and George Harrison through your unique perspective?
RA: I don’t even know where to begin. The amazing guitar playing that Lennon has done, whether it’s his “feel” as a rhythm player, or the riff in “I Feel Fine”… it’s such attitude. It’s really amazing.
BF: It was punk before punk in a way.
RA: Yeah, exactly. Lennon is in my blood. And Harrison is such an amazing color guy. Like the solo in “Something,” it’s like God. The way he infused his influences in creating the solo in “Something” is amazing. It’s blues, it’s horn music, and it’s mixed with Harrison really developing his chord sense. He brings the whole chord change out with the melodies, the solos, and the singing. It’s exuberantly, melodically satisfying. It’s so unique.
BF: Jimmy Page felt being both a great musician and a great producer gave him the edge in Led Zeppelin. As a musician/producer, would you agree?
RA: Absolutely. Production is very important, especially these days. But it’s interesting, as the better the recording technology gets, the easier it is to get good sound. But it’s a different kind of good sound. When you hear those old recordings, whether it’s the Kinks or Frank Sinatra, you’re hearing a group of people working together in a room, and that’s irreplaceable. Multi-tracking is great, but I’m a fan more of when you can hear musicians interacting in a room, even if it’s subtle. It makes a lot of difference in the recording.
BF: Are you a big believer in analog?
RA: There’s a lot of trickery that can work, ‘cause analog takes trickery too. It’s not live. But digital recordings, you just have to be careful. Getting onto tape at some point is still a beneficial thing, but no matter what, you’ve got to use your ears and have some knowledge of how a signal path works.
BF: You consistently get good sounds on stage and in studio. Divided By 13 Amps give you a big credit in helping them develop their amps and getting them off the ground. You also seem to have an affinity for Gibson SG’s and 335’s.
RA: I just talked to Divided By 13. Lenny Kravitz actually came and hung out at three shows in a row and called them up and ordered a bunch of amps, as did his guitar player, Craig Ross. As far as guitars, I just got a Gibson Trini Lopez, which is exactly like a 335 but with a Firebird headstock. It gives the neck more tension, and the pickups are a little weaker. The tonal range of that guitar is pretty amazing. But my main axe is a ’59 blonde 335.
BF: What do you hope people take away from listening to Undressing Underwater?
RA: I believe the album is a roller coaster ride, and I guess I’m referring to the tempos. You have the real ballady stuff like ‘Coming Down to Earth’ or ‘Damaged Goods’ with more uptempo stuff like ‘Devil’s Spaceship’ and the record floats between it all. A lot of people would throw all the rockier stuff at the beginning and the ballady stuff later, but I chose not to do that. It just didn’t feel right.
Another great moment was Stewart Copeland playing drums on ‘Catbox Beach’ and that was kick because we were in a band together, he’s a good friend, and I’ve played on some of his stuff. It’s so great watching Stewart play, because in the split second before he plays a fill, you can see in his eyes that’s he’s deciding what to do. It’s so unpremeditated and off the cuff. And I think that makes for a very musical performance.
I don’t always know how I do everything I do anymore. I’ve played on a lot of recordings. But one thing I’ve worked on is how to stay out of the way of a vocal to enhance it and bring it out. When you’re working on music, you usually have a central voice. And promoting that central voice is ultimately the main job. By now, I think that’s something I do naturally. People might notice that about the record, but people might not, because any great production is that way, by necessity.
I think you have to put something at the forefront. So even though there’s a lot of really colorful guitar bits and different instruments stuck in there, the primary focus is the melody of the voice and the guitar, as well as the lyrics. In other words, you’ve got to keep your eye on the ball. You can hear a composition or a production on a one-dimensional level. But if you’re really listening to what’s going on, you can tell what the first inspiration is. Not the loudest thing in the mix necessarily, but what is driving the core of the song and holding it together. And I find that fascinating.
